AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1945 TO DATE

SURVEY COURSE
SPRING 2013
Course Instructor: Mihai Mndra
Seminar Instructors: Diana Benea, Bogdan Coman
Course Description
Rationale
This is a survey (i.e. introductory) course to contemporary American literature, which aims
(at the same time with offering a brief presentation of complex literary phenomena) to
build on students previous knowledge and experience with literature as an act of
communication (see M. Bakhtin, Stuart Hall, Philip Phelan, Marie-Laure Ryan, David
Herman, M. Fludernik, Wai Chee Dimock, etc.). Specifically, according to Bologna/Lisbon
requirements, the course (and seminars) will focus on developing students academic
skills (especially text reading and analysis) rather than delivering factual information.
The structure of the course / seminars will, therefore, be slightly different from the
traditional ones.
Structure and Organization
Every lecture consists in a PowerPoint Presentation introducing major ideas and issues
(approx. 60 minutes), followed by close reading of relevant excerpts from the texts related
to the respective lecture (handouts). Whereas the first part is mainly expository, the
second one requires the students active intellectual attendance. To facilitate the
discussions, the students can access the PowerPoint presentations and handouts in an
electronic group site one week before the class. They are kindly asked to annotate and
comment the excerpts in relation to the issues introduced in the PowerPoint presentation
in the second period of the course class.
All PowerPoint presentations and handouts, as well as other relevant materials are
available
in
the
Files
section
of
the
following
yahoo
group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MMindra_1945ToDate_AmLit. Students are kindly
asked to follow the instructions provided by the course instructor in the file titled
Evaluare in order to obtain access to the course materials on the group.
When appropriate (see syllabus), the PowerPoint presentation is complemented and / or
replaced by audio and/or visual materials. The multimedia resources will be accompanied
by specific sets of questions, which will be distributed a few minutes in advance of the
screening / listening thereof.
Objectives:
- To create competent readers of cultural markers and textual patterns, i.e. the
students should be able to identify the literary strategies used by the authors included
in the reading lists below, as a response to contemporary political, social, and aesthetic
ideologies (all the information concerning these matters is mentioned in the PowerPoint
presentations); to illustrate the complex variety of literary responses; the reading lists
contain both mainstream and multicultural texts.
- To enable students to become proficient writers / speakers in standard academic English
- To develop the students research-specific and technical / methodological skills (optional,
as this is an undergraduate course / class; this third objective may be applicable only to
some of the students).
Minimum Requirements:

2
- IIIrd Year English Minor (IIIB): mandatory readings included in the Seminar Reading List
(marked in yellow)
- IInd Year American Studies: mandatory readings included in the Seminar Reading List
(marked in yellow), plus texts highlighted in green from Lecture 10 onwards (marked in
green)
- Fragments from the reading items will be discussed and tested in the course PowerPoint
Presentations, course handouts, seminar quizzes, seminar handouts, and the final exam.
- 50% attendance: full attendance of 5 lectures
Methodological Reference
Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Austin,
Texas: University of Texas Press, 1982.
Hall, Stuart, ed. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Milton
Keynes: The Open University, 1997.
Phelan, James. Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory
of Narrative. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2007.
Ryan, Marie-Laure. Fictionality. Ed. David Herman. The Cambridge Companion to
Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Ryan, Marie-Laure. Avatars of the Story. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
Fludernik, Monika. An Introduction to Narratology. London & New York: Rutledge, 2009.
Dimock, Wai Chee. Through Other Continents: American Literature across Deep Time.
Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006.

Lecture 1: Introduction to the American 1950s - Major cultural and political

directions.
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
Great Memories of the 1950s.
A Biography of America. Dir. Fred Barzyk. 2000. Chapters 23 & 24.
Lecture 2: Introduction to the American 1950s - Major cultural and political
directions (continued).
1950s American Fiction (I): Classical Novel Writing and Ethnic Perspectives Saul Bellow and Ralph
Ellison.
READING LIST (Handout 1)
Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March (1953);
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
Lecture 3: 1950s American Fiction Classical Fiction Writing (Philip Roth) and PrePostmodernist Visions (Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, and John Barth) [I]
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
Poetry Center Digital Archive Collections
Poetry Foundation Digital Recordings
READING LIST (Handout 2):
Norman Mailer, The Man Who Studied Yoga (1959; Norton, 1985, 2nd volume)
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

John Barth, The Floating Opera (1956), Life Story (1968; Norton, 1985,
2nd volume)
Philip Roth, Defender of the Faith (1959; Norton, 2007, vol. E)
Lecture 4: 1950s American Poetry (I) - (New) Objectivism, Black Mountain Poets,
Nascent Confessional Voices;
Charles Olson, Theodore Roethke, Stanley Kunitz.
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
Poetry Center Digital Archive Collections
Poetry Foundation Digital Recordings
READING LIST (Handout 3):
Stanley Kunitz, Father and Son (from Selected Poems, 1958; Norton, 2007, vol.
E)
Theodore Roethke, Root Cellar(1943, Poetry); The Waking(1953; Norton,
2007, vol. E))
Charles Olson, I, Maximus of Gloucester, to You and Maximus to Himself (from
The Maximum Poems, 1953; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Lecture 5: 1950s American Poetry (II) - San Francisco Renaissance, Beat Poetry,
Confessionalism; Allan Ginsberg
and Robert Lowell.
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
Poetry Center Digital Archive Collections
Poetry Foundation Digital Recordings collection
The Source: The Story of the Beats and the Beat Generation. Dir. Chuck
Workman, 2000.
READING LIST (Handout 4):
Allan Ginsberg, Howl (1956), A Supermarket in California (1956; Norton, 2007,
vol. E))
Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour (1959; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Lecture 6: Introduction to the American 1960s Major cultural and political
directions. College campus
movement and the counterculture; Civil Rights movement; radical feminism; the
space race and its impact on American art and architecture; new means of
communication and the beginnings of the global village.
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
PBS videos on the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and the 1960s
American Presidents.
Lecture 7: 1960s American Fiction - Classical Novel Writing (John Updike) and
Postmodernist Visions (Kurt
Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon). [II]
READING LIST (Handout 5):
John Updike, Rabbit Run (1960); Separating (1974; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

4
Lecture 8: 1960s Poetry Confessionalism (Sylvia Plath); Countering the Mainstream
Ethic and Class Concerns
in Classic Meter (George Oppen, Robert Hayden)
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
Poetry Center Digital Archive Collections
Poetry Foundation Digital Recordings
READING LIST (Handout 6):
George Oppen, From Of Being Numerous (1968; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Robert Hayden, Middle Passage I (1962; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus (1966; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Lecture 9: Introduction to the American 1970s and 1980s. Mainstreaming the
radicalism of the 1960s and the
return to more conservative views; Watergate and increasing distrust of American
government; growing concern with environmental issues; gay liberation
movements; multiculturalism; French Theory, particularly Deconstruction, goes to
America.
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
PBS videos on the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Watergate, and multicultural
wars in America.
Lecture 10: 1970s 1980s American Fiction and Poetry (I) Multiculturalism;
Feminist Fiction (Gloria Anzalda); Ethnic Postmodernism (Gloria Anzalda, Toni
Morrison); Minimalism (Raymond Carver); Postmodernism (Don DeLillo) and PostPostmodernism (Paul Auster).
READING LIST (Handout 7):
Raymond Carver, Cathedral (1983; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy (1987)
Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985)
Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)
Gloria Anzalda, La consciencia de la mestiza / Towards a New Consciousness;
How to Tame a Wild Tongue; El sonavabitche (1987; Norton,
2007, vol. E))
Lecture 11: 1970s 1980s American Fiction and Poetry (II). Ethnic Postmodernism;
Feminist Fiction (continued);
the New York School of Poetry (John Ashberry, Frank OHara, James Schuyler,
Kenneth Koch); the Language Poets (Charles Berstein, Lyn Hejinian, Michael Palmer,
Susan Howe)
READING LIST (Handout 8):
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among
Ghosts (1975)
Art Spiegelman, Maus (1986; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
John Ashbery: Paradoxes and Oxymorons (1981), Introduction (1984) (on
electronic group site, in Files)
Susan Howe, Hinge Pictures(excerpts in Handout)
Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck (1973; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Simon Ortiz, From Sand Creek (1981; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Cathy Song, Chinatown (1983; to be loaded)

5
Lecture 12: Introduction to Contemporary American Cultural and Political
Directions - the internet revolution;
globalisation and its discontents; the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the
US as the only global power, in charge with protecting human rights and
democracy; the Gulf War, interventions in former Yugoslavia and Middle East; 9/11
and the War on Terror. Contemporary Fiction and Poetry (I) Pre- and Post9/11: classical and post-postmodernist forms.
Audio & visual materials A selection from:
PBS videos on the end of the Cold War and 1990s American Democrat and
Republican Presidents.
READING LIST (Handout 9):
Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (2002)
John Updike, Terrorist (2002)
Lecture 13: Contemporary Fiction and Poetry (II) Pre- and Post-9/11.
READING LIST (Handout 10):
Louise Glck, Terminal Resemblance (1990; to be loaded)
Joy Harjo, The Flood (1994; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Kimiko Hahn, Her Very Eyes (2001; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Pattian Rogers, Grief (2002; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
Brendan Galvin, Fragments #1 and #3 (2001; Norton, 2007, vol. E))
David Ray, Six Months After (2002; Norton, 2007, vol. E))

Lecture 14: 1945 to Date American Drama.

READING LIST (Handout 11):
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
Arthur Miller, The Crucible (1953)
David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross (1984)
Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (1991;
1995)
TEXTBOOKS:
Baym, Nina et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Second Edition. Vol. II. New
York and London: W.W.Norton Company, 1985.
Baym, Nina et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Seventh Edition. Vol. E.
New York and London: W.W.Norton Company, 2007.
General Reference (as available in Room 4 and BCU)
Barrish, Philip J. The Cambridge Introduction to American Literary Realism. Cambridge UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Bigsby, C. W. E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Volumes 1
& 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Bilton, Allan. An Introduction to Contemporary American Fiction. New York: New York
University Press, 2003.
Cayton, Marx Kupiec, ed. Encyclopedia of American Social History. 3 volumes, New York:
Scribner's, 1992.

Charters, Ann, ed. The Portable Beat Reader. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.
Elliott, Emory et al. The Columbia History of the American Novel. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1991.
Elliott, Emory et al. The Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1988.
Hume, Kathryn. American Dream, American Nightmare: Fiction since 1960. Urbana and
Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
MacGowan, Christopher. 20th Century American Poetry. New York: Blackwell Publishing
2004.
Parini, Jay. The Columbia History of American Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press,
1993.
Sacvan Bercovitch et al. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Volumes 5, 6, 7 &
8. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996 & 1996.
Sim, Stuart. The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism. London and New York:
Routledge, 2003. (BCU)
Tabbi, Joseph. Postmodern Sublime: Technology and American Writing from Mailer to
Cyberpunk. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1995.
Tompkins, Vincent, ed. American Decades. New York: Gale Research, 1996.
Faculty Books / BCU (undergraduate / graduate level):
Bottez, Monica. Analysing Narrative Fiction: Reading Strategies. Bucuresti: Editura
Universitatii din Bucuresti, 2007.
Bottez, Monica. Motley Landscapes: Studies in Post-war American Fiction. Bucuresti:
Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, 1997.
Mihaila, Rodica. Turning the Wheel: The Construction of Power Relations in Contemporary
American Womens Poetry. Bucuresti: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, 1995.
Mihaila, Rodica. Spatii ale realului n proza americana: ntre autobiografie si evanghelia
americana.Brasov: Concordia, 2000.
Mindra, Mihai. The Phenomenology of the Novel. Iasi: Institutul European, 2002: 208 257.

books.google.com
Mindra, Mihai. Strategists of Assimilation. Fundatia Nationala pentru Stiinta si Arta,
Academia Romana, 2003.
Mindra, Mihai. Narrative Constructs and Border Transgressions in Jewish-American
Holocaust Fiction. Studies in Jewish American Literature, 28 (2009): 46 - 54.
http://muse.jhu.edu/
Surdulescu, Radu. The Raping of Identity: Studies on Physical and Symbolic Violence. Iasi:
Institutul European, 2006: 116-127.
Additionally, students may ask the course/seminar instructor(s) for help with
specific bibliographies, preferably via e-mail.
Location of Primary Sources:
BCU (sucursala Pitar Mos)
Studii Americane (Sala 4)
Location of Secondary Sources:
BCU (main hall in Piata Revolutiei & Pitar Mos)
American Studies Room (Sala 4 / Room 4)
Electronic books: www.questia.com (subscription necessary)
Electronic articles: ProQuest, EBSCO, Sage Journals Online, Oxford Journals, Project Muse
http://muse.jhu.edu/ , Cambridge Journals http://cco.cambridge.org/public_home (available
in Room 4 and at BCU)